Back-to-Lay Betting Strategy

While there is always an element of risk involved in betting, there are a number of strategies that you can employ to minimise the risk that you're exposed to, and even to guarantee yourself a profit.

What is Back-to-Lay Betting?

One such strategy is back-to-lay betting. This is often an in-play betting strategy (although it can be used pre-event if the opportunity presents itself), which involves backing a selection at a relatively high price, then, at a later time, laying the same selection (i.e. betting that it will not happen) to guarantee yourself a profit if the market moves in the right direction. Even if it does not, you can still lay the selection to reduce your overall loss on the market.

Clearly, this is a strategy designed for betting on the exchanges. Bookmakers rarely offer punters the possibility of laying a selection because this is the role that the bookmakers themselves play. However, the exchanges rely on people betting against each other by backing selections and laying selections at varying odds.

Back-to-Lay in Football Betting

Let’s use an example to demonstrate this back-to-lay betting strategy in action. One commonly used tactic in football betting is to back the draw in a match that is expected to be relatively tight and low scoring. Let’s say that the draw is offered at 3.8 (around 11/4) on Betfair Sports' exchange prior to kick-off, and you stake £100 to back this outcome. Twenty minutes into the game, the score is still 0-0, and the draw is now available to lay at 3.0 (2/1). If you decide to lay the draw at this new price to win £126.67 (which is above your initial £100 stake) with a liability of £253.33 (which is below the potential return from your initial bet), you can guarantee yourself a profit, regardless of the match's outcome.

In this case, if the match ends as a draw, you would win your initial back bet. With £100 at 3.8, you would come away with a profit of £280. However, you would lose your lay bet. On your lay bet you staked to win £126.67 at odds of 3.0, corresponding to a liability of £253.33. Therefore, if the draw happens, you win £280, but lose £253.33, leaving you with a profit of £26.67.

If either team wins, you would lose your initial back bet but would win your lay, i.e. you would lose the £100, but would win the £126.67, resulting in a profit of £26.67. As you can see, you have guaranteed yourself a profit of £26.67, regardless of what the final result of the match is.

Back-to-Lay Used Pre-Event

This back-to-lay betting strategy can used in almost any sport available on the exchanges, and can even be used pre-event like in horse racing betting. For example, three months before a big horse race, you could back a horse at odds of 20.0. If it were then to win impressively in its final outing before the big race, it would be no surprise to see its odds shorten. You could then potentially lay the same horse at odds of 14.0, for example, locking in a profit before the day of the race even arrives.

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Every online gambler deserves a safe and fair place to play. Our mission at Gambling.com is to create a safe online environment for players through free, impartial and independent reviews of Canada's best online gambling companies so that you can play with confidence and security. All ratings and reviews are made independently of the operator by our team of gaming experts and with every company being fully licensed they can be trusted to offer fair play. We accept compensation from the companies advertised on this page and this may affect the brand positioning. We endeavour to continuously update this list so we can bring you the most current sites and the best available offers but we cannot review every site in the market.